The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

More documents

Recommendations

Info

186 VIII.xi.40–xi.55 Isidore of Seville the word were volicanus,because he flies through the air – for fire is born from clouds. 40. Whence also Homer says that he fell headlong down from the air to the earth, because all lightning falls from the air. For that reason Vulcan is imagined to have been born from Juno’s thigh, because lightning bolts originate in the lower parts of the air. 41.Vulcan is also called lame, because fire by nature is never straight, but has an appearance and motion as if it were lame. So also they say that this same Vulcan is the originator of the smithy, because without fire no kind of metal can be cast and beaten out. 42. PlutoinGreekis Diespiter or ‘Father of Dis’ (Ditis Pater)inLatin. 11 Some call him Orcus,receiverofthedead,asitwere–whence the vessel that receives water is called orca. Heisalso Charon in Greek. 43.Theyhold that Liber (Liber)isnamed from ‘release’ (liberamentum), because it is as if males were released (liberare) byhis favor when their seed is ejaculated in copulation, since this same Liber is depicted with a delicate feminine body. Indeed, they say that women are assigned to him, and also wine, for the sake of arousing desire. 44. Whence his brow is wreathed with vines. But heholdsacrownofvinesandahorn,becausewhen wine is drunk in moderation and acceptably it confers happiness, but when it is drunk immoderately it stirs up quarrels – that is, it is as if it gives horns. And he is also called Lyaeus after the term (“loosen”) because the limbs are loosened by a great deal of wine. And in Greek he is called from the mountain Nysa in India, where he issaidtohavebeenbrought up. Otherwise there is also the city Nysa, in which Liber is worshipped, from which he is called Nysaeus. 45. Mercury(Mercurius) istranslated as “speech,” for Mercury is said tobenamedasifthewordwere medius currens (“go-between”), because speech is the gobetween for people. In Greek he is called ,because ‘speech’ or ‘interpretation,’ which pertains especially to speech, is called . 46. Heisalso said to preside over commerce (merx,gen.mercis), because the medium between dealers and buyers is speech. So he is imagined to have wings, because words run to and fro quickly. Whence also he is represented as rapid and roving; the wings on his head and feet signify speech taking flight through the air. 47. Heiscalled the messenger, because all thoughts are expressed by speech. They also say he is the master of trickery, because speech deceives the minds of those who listen. He holds a staff with which he sep- arates serpents, that is, poisons. 12 48. Thus,opponents and antagonists may be calmed by the speech of mediators, whence, according to Livy, legates of peace are called caduceatores (lit. “bearers of the herald’s caduceus”). Just as wars were declared through fetiales, 13 so peace was made through caduceatores. 49. Hermes is named after the Greek term (“interpretation”) in Greek, in Latin ‘interpreter’; on account of his power and knowledge of many arts he is called Trimegistus (i.e. Trismegistus), that is, thrice great (ter maximus). And they imagine him with a dog’s head, they say, because among all animals the dog is held to be the most intelligent and acute species. 50. TheycallthegodofwarMars, and he is called Mars because he fights using men, as if Mars were ‘male’ (mas,gen.maris). However, there are three practices customary in war: that of the Scythians, where both men and women go into battle; of the Amazons, where only women go; and of the Romans and other peoples, where only men go. 51. Heisalsocalled Mars as the author of deaths, for death (mors) isnamedafterMars. They also call him the adulterer, because he is fickle towards warriors. 52. And in fact he stands bare-chested, so that each person may expose himself to war without fear in his heart. Mars is also called Gradivus among the Thracians, because those who fight direct their step (gradus) into battle, or because they advance (gradi) readily. 53. Although they considered Apollo a diviner and physician, they also called him Sun (Sol), as if ‘alone’ (solus). They called him Titan, as if he were that one of the Titans who did not oppose Jupiter. 54. Andthey called him Phoebus, a youth (ephebus), as it were, that is, an adolescent. Whence the sun is also pictured as a youth, because it rises daily and is born with a new light. They say that this same Apollo is called Pythius from the Python, a serpent of immense size, whose size was as terrifying as its venom. 55.Apollo,overpowering it with arrow shots, took its name as booty, so that he is called 11 Diespiter is actually an archaic nominative of Iuppiter.Isidore is identifying Diespiter with Pluto because he is connecting the word with Dis, the Latin name of the god of the underworld. 12 Mercury was said to have separated a pair of fighting serpents with his staff, which thus became his familiar attribute, the caduceus, a staff with a pair of snakes twined around it. 13 The fetiales were acollege of Roman priests charged with making formal declarations of war.
Pythius. Whence also he established the Pythian rites to be celebrated as a sign of victory. 56.They also say that Diana, his twin, in a similar way is the moon, and guardian of roads – whence they consider her a virgin, because a road gives birth to nothing. They are both imagined to have arrows, because the two celestial bodies cast rays to the earth. Diana (Diana) is so called, is if the word were Duana (cf. duo, “both”), because the moon may appear both during the day (dies) and at night. 57. They also maintain that she is Lucina, because she gives light (lucere). And they say she is Trivia, because she takes on three (tres)appearances. Concerning her, Vergil says (Aen. 4.511): Three faces of the virgin Diana, because this same goddess is called Luna, Diana, and Proserpina. 58.But when Luna is imagined (Prudentius, Against the Oration of Symmachus 1.365): She shines with a glimmering cloak. When, girded up, she shoots her arrows, she is the virgin Latonia. When seated resting on her throne, she is Pluto’s wife. And Diana is Latonia, because she was the daughter of Latona. 59. Theymaintain that Ceres, that is, the earth, is so called from the creating (creare) ofcrops,and they call her by many names. They also say she is Ops (i.e ‘plenty’), because the earth is made better by her work (opus). 60. Proserpina, because from her the fruits ‘spread forth’ (proserpere). 61. Vesta, because she is clothed (vestire) with plants and various things, or from ‘enduring by her own power’ (vi sua stare). They imagine this same one asbothEarth(Tellus)andtheGreat Mother (Mater Magna), turret-crowned with drum and cock and clash of cymbals. She is called ‘Mother’ because she bears many offspring; ‘Great’ because she produces food; ‘the Bountiful’ (Alma)because she nourishes all animals with her produce – for earth is the nursery of food. 62.Herimage is imagined with a key because the earth is locked up in the winter, and is opened in the spring so that crops are born. She holds a drum because they wish to signify the orb of the earth. 63. She is said to be drawn in a wagon because she is the earth, and earth hangs in the air. She is carried on wheels because the world rotates and spins. 14 Isidore here identifies Ceres with Vesta, goddess of the hearth, whose priestesses were the Vestal Virgins. The Etymologies VIII.xi.56–xi.71 187 They furnish her with tame lions below to show that no kind of beast is so wild that it cannot be subjugated and ruled by her. 64.That she wears a turreted crown on her head shows the cities set upon the earth, characterized, as it were, by their towers. Seats are imagined around her because while everything moves she herself does not move. 65. The Corybantes, her servants, are imagined with swords to signify that everyone ought to fight for his own land. They depicted cocks as serving this goddess to signify that whoever lacks seed should follow the earth; in her depth they may find all things. 66.That people are shown flinging themselves about before her is a warning, they say, that those who till the earth should not rest, for there is always something for them to do. The clashing of bronze cymbals is the clattering of iron implements in tilling a field – but they are of bronze because the ancients used to till the earth with bronze before iron had been discovered. 67. They call this same one both Vesta and fire, because there is no doubt that the earth possesses fire, as can be seen from Etna and Vulcanus. And they thought she was a virgin because fire is an inviolable element, and nothing can be born from it; indeed it consumes all that it seizes. 14 68. Ovidinthe Fasti (6.291): Understand Vesta as no other than living flame – you see no bodies born from flame. Furthermore, virgins are said to wait on her, because just as nothing is born from a virgin, so nothing is born from fire. 69.TheysayJuno(Iuno), as if the name were Iano,that is, ‘door’ (ianua), with regard to the menstrual discharge of women, because, as it were, she lays open the doors of mothers for their children, and of wives for their husbands. But this is what the philosophers say. The poets claim that Juno is the sister and wife of Jupiter; for they explain Jupiter as fire and air, and Juno as water and earth. By the mixture of these two, all things came into being. 70. And they say she is the sister because she is part of the world, and the wife because when united with him she brings harmony. Whence Vergil (Geo. 2.325): Then the omnipotent father, the air, descends with fertile showers into the lap of his wife. 71. Amongthe Greeks Minerva is called , that is, woman. Among the Romans she is called Minerva
Page 1 and 2: Book VIII The Church and sects (De
Page 3 and 4: orn (genitus)fromthese, and when th
Page 5 and 6: they assert that the Son is not lik
Page 7 and 8: 3.Sohenceforth it was pleasing to l
Page 9 and 10: the same time - or from the platter
Page 11 and 12: called astrologers (mathematicus);
Page 13: will pretend that he is Christ, and
Page 17 and 18: 87. Fauns (faunus) were so called f

The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?